Sausage…

I’ve been having such a big craving for … sausage!  I don’t know why, I just feel like eating the juicy, chunky sausage meat.  So, yesterday I run down to a butcher and bought several kinds of sausages – pork, chicken, steak and herb, and italian cheese.

I grilled them at home, and ate with grain mustard.  Before eating, I was so looking forward to enjoying the sausages… all the name (steak and herb, Italian cheese…) sounded so yummy!  But, unfortunately I didn’t enjoy.

I realised what I was looking for was something similar to Japanese sausages.  The sausages here are very meaty, and too fatty to me.  I couldn’t finish eating them all.  Heartburning….

The left photo is the Japanese sausage, and the right photo is the normal sausage you normally see around here.  The right one looks yummy, isn’t it?  But, I prefer the Japanese one  Japanese sausage can be eaten as it is: I think it’s a type of processed food like ham or bacon.  The meat is not raw, and you can eat as it is, boiled, or grilled.

I love the taste of the Japanese sausages.  The best brand is “Nippon Ham –  Shauessen” sausage.  What’s so good about it?  The difference is, the skin!  When it’s cooked, it has the very crisp skin and you can hear the sound when you snap the sausage into half.  See the video at Nippon Ham Website.

The best way to eat Japanese sausage is boiling. You cook them in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes, the flavor and fat come together, and eat while they are hot.  I loooooove eating them with spicy grain mustard.

I may like Japanese sausages just because they are the one I had been eating since I was little.  Have anyone eaten Japanese sausages before?  I don’t know if foreign people also like Japanese sausages, or it’s just us.

Japanese sausages are available at some Asian grocery shop in Perth, but they are sold “frozen”.  I’ve never tried them, the taste may be different..

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Miso Soup

On a cold day like this, I have a craving for hearty miso soup.  Miso soup doesn’t always have to be with simply tofu or wakame.  The variety is endless and you can add any ingredients according to what you feel like drinking.

Miso is usually made from soy bean (some miso paste is made from rice, wheat, or barley) and it is a good source of protein, dietary fiber and minerals.  I know some Japanese ingredients are high in salt, including miso paste and soy sauce.  It is because Japan is an island country (salt could be obtained from the ocean easily), and also because of the Japan’s traditional diet.  

Traditional meal always consists of rice as a “main food”, and some side dishes.  To eat rice, side dishes had to be salty to accompany the bland taste of steamed rice.  Miso soup, pickles, seasoned nori sheets, grilled fish with a sprinkle of salt are the examples.  A Rice ball (onigiri) has been a popular lunch item since loong time ago in Japan for kids and husbands who work outside, and it was just a shaped steamed rice with salt back then.  Nowadays, onigiri usually contains a nori sheet, or some kind of seasonings.  

Go back to the miso soup..  I had a craving for a simple tofu miso soup last night, so I made it this morning for breakfast.  To me, the miso soup has to be super hot.  But, when you make miso soup you can’t boil it after adding the miso paste to the soup otherwise it’ll lose the flavor.  And, to me the tofu for the miso soup has to be silken one.  I love the texture.

While in Japan my favorite miso soup (other than tofu) was shijimi (tiny clam) miso soup, cabbage miso soup, and onion miso soup.  If you go to sushi bar in Japan you can enjoy lobster miso soup or fish head miso soup.  They are quite tasty too

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Good Bye Jazz

I passed my car to the buyer today and completed all the ownership transfer process.  Now I just need to wait until my new car is ready to be picked up…

Oh, by the way the dealer called me again and asked …

“Ume, did you want the SILVER or SILVER LEAF?”

……  SILVER, please.  I will be really mad if they mistake the color again (@_@)

Before I passed my car to the buyer, I asked a cleaning company to wash my car.  I wanted the car to be sparkling clean before giving to someone.  I’ve known the cleaner for quite a long time as they clean my office, and they do a really great job each time.

It was the first time to ask them for washing a car … well, I’ve never asked anyone to wash my car before, as I normally do it myself.  Maybe that’s the reason, but my car was always little dusty and I really thought I needed to replace the whole front screen.  The front screen was not transparent anymore, and I thought it was because of the damage from the strong sunlight in WA. :p

After the car wash…..   I was amazed!  I thought I was driving a brand new car.  There was no single dust, the little scratches around key hole were gone, the black body was shining, and…. the front screen was very very transparent.  You wouldn’t know if there is a glass in front of you.  This is how pro cleans….  Unbelievable.

Oh, I totally recommend this cleaner!  They are very friendly husband and wife, and the wife is Japanese.  Their website is still under construction, but I will update it later when it’s out.

Contact: 044 918 0017

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Maccha Banana Shake

As I bought lots of banana from a market and they started to turn black already, I decided to finish them up by making a banana drink!

I didn’t have much ingredients to use in the fridge, so I just added milk and honey to taste.  With a dash of maccha green tea powder, it turned out to be delicious

It was little thick, just how I like it.

<Maccha Banana Shake> makes 1 glass

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• 1 monkey banana (or 1/2 normal banana)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp Maccha powder

Tomato Curry with Somen Noodle

Somen Noodle + curry??  It sounds a little mismatch, but spicy tomato curry does go with simple somen noodle.  Enjoy with lots of mushroom ♪

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<Somen Tomato Curry with Chicken and Mushroom> serves 4

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• 1 chicken breast fillet
• 2 baby eggplants
• 1 pack shimeji mushroom
• 2~3 button mushrooms
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tbs curry powder
• 100ml sake (cooking wine)
• 400g tomato tin, peeled
• 100~150ml chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• salt, sugar and pepper to taste
• 200g somen noodle